With the 2010 Census about to kick off its door-to-door campaign May 1, towns like Downers Grove are making the task a little easier with high response rates. As of April 30, the last day forms can be mailed back, Downers Grove has posted an above-average census response rate of 82 percent, which is 10 points higher than the national average of 72 percent. The constitutionally-mandated process, which takes a head count of all Americans every 10 years, decides among other things how...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. public pensions eked out modest gains on their investments in the first quarter of the year, reflecting a slowdown after their huge returns during the stock market's rally in 2013, according to U.S. Census data released on Thursday. The slower pace of gains could curb public pensions' ability to pay benefits in the years ahead as the aging Baby Boom generation retires. Public pensions' holdings hit a record high of $3.22...

By Bonnie Derwinski, Director, Congressional and Public Affairs, Immigration and Naturalization Service | March 29, 1990

The Tribune article "INS raids making it rough on census" on March 11 gave the impression that the Immigration and Naturalization Service is insensitive to concerns that its enforcement could affect the census count by raising fears among undocumented aliens. The article failed to mention the various voluntary actions the service has taken to address this concern. The commissioner has directed field offices to refrain from enforcement activities that in any way inhibit the participation of undocumented aliens or...

The first survey arrived in Mary Ann Melilli's mail more than a month ago. She knew immediately she wasn't interested. The Clearing neighborhood resident found the 11-page, 48-question Census Bureau survey a bit intrusive. "Do I go to work? When do I leave? What time do I come back? All kinds of questions," Melilli said. "Do I have a toilet that flushes? I thought they couldn't ask you those questions. " So, she didn't answer. Melilli said she received another survey in...

Although our census forms have been mailed and we won`t have to think about it again until the year 2000, my son, who is a college student in West Lafayette, Ind., raised a very valid point. He would like to know, and I would, too, why he is not counted in the State of Illinois, which is his primary residence. Except when the census is taken, my son is considered a non-resident of Indiana, because he doesn`t reside there 12 months a year. As a result, he receives none of the benefits of being a resident of...

YANGON (Reuters) - A group of women dressed in green sarong-like longyis and simple white blouses stand around a table piled with census forms entering neat notations on spread sheets by hand. The women will have to go through 37,579 family census forms in the next 24 hours, according to officials, using hand calculators to tally the total numbers because they have no access to computers. The scene underscores the challenges of carrying out a census in this...

SANTIAGO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - President Sebastian Pinera asked Chileans to forgive him on Thursday for a 2012 census that a review panel found to be so flawed it should be thrown out, a political embarrassment for his government months before a general election. An independent panel appointed by the government of conservative Pinera to review the census recommended on Wednesday that it be discarded and held again with fewer questions in 2015. Pinera...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States called on Myanmar on Wednesday to lift travel restrictions on U.N. and other humanitarian staff to allow them to resume work in the country's Rakhine State, which has been hit by ethnic and religious violence. The State Department expressed deep concern about what it termed "a humanitarian crisis" in the state and said violent mob attacks on U.N. and non-governmental organization offices had worsened an already troubling...

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Hundreds of wildlife experts carrying sophisticated cameras began combing the forests in Nepal's southern plains on Tuesday in the Himalayan nation's biggest campaign yet to count the number of endangered tigers roaming in its national parks. The survey is crucial for planning strategy to double the number of Royal Bengal tigers in Nepal by 2022, as pledged by the Nepali government. Nepal is currently home to 176 of the animals, which are threatened by...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. public pensions enjoyed a banner year in 2013, as rising investment returns and increasing government contributions pushed their holdings to record highs, U.S. Census data showed on Thursday. Public pensions ended the fourth quarter with $3.192 trillion in cash and security holdings, the highest level since the Census began collecting data in 1968. That was 4.2 percent more than in the third quarter and 12.5 percent more than in the...

From a chair on the front porch of her modest brick home on South Homan Avenue, 79-year-old Rose Sanders has seen her neighbors come and go, transforming her North Lawndale block from an enclave of stately historic graystones into a stretch of boarded-up buildings in foreclosure. But in recent weeks, the community has had an infusion of energy. The rapper Ludacris showed up at the neighborhood McDonald's, drawing a crowd of 300 people. Local activists have been handing out T-shirts.

"Chicago is the drain into which the brains of the Middle West disappear. Moving there is not even an aspiration for ambitious Michiganders. It's the accepted endpoint of one's educational progression: grade school, middle school, high school, college, Chicago. " - Edward McClelland, "Nothin' But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times, and Hopes of America's Industrial Heartland," 2013. For more than half a century, the decennial U.S. census has carried almost unrelenting bad news for Chicago.

Village officials are considering conducting a special census, following similar moves by neighboring Bolingbrook and Lockport, in the search for more money. An expected increase in the town's population, and therefore its per capita-based state revenues, should offset the cost of conducting the census, Finance Director Ellie Hogan said. "We have just begun researching how this is done, so I do not have figures on the cost (to conduct the census)," Hogan said. "But I'm sure the cost will be far...

Sept 17 (Reuters) - The percentage of Americans living in poverty remained steady last year at 15 percent after rising for several years in the wake of the recession, while the number of people without health insurance fell slightly to 48 million, U.S. government data released on Tuesday showed. The Census Bureau in its annual report said about 46.5 million Americans were living in poverty last year, little changed from 46.2 million in 2011. The 2012...

Underscoring arguments for strong participation in this year's census, a new report details the billions of dollars that Illinois and the Chicago region have received in federal funds tied to the previous count. Researchers with the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, found that Illinois received $19.1 billion in 2008 in federal funds tied to census counts, about a third of all the federal assistance it received. Of that amount, the Chicago area received at least $12.6...

* 'Historic low' for households with married parents and children * More Americans now living alone, data show * Nearly 800,000 more households include out-of-work parent By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - The iconic picture of the traditional American household has faded over the last four decades as the number of married couples with children has seen a steep decline and more people are living alone, according to U.S. Census...